www.milduraweekly.com.au
18 Mildura Weekly – 20/12/13
WHEN it comes to the art of
spray painting, a trade that has
traditionally always been a man’s
world, Mildura teenager Emily
Stebbing is right up there with the
best of them.
Emily, 18, has just missed out
-
literally by a coat of paint - in
being judged the best apprentice
spray painter in the State.
A Shepparton apprentice
won that honour by the barest of
margins at the recent Worldskills
spray painting competition in
Melbourne, and will represent the
State at the national titles in Perth
in September next year.
If for some reason he can’t go,
Emily is next in line, and the next
step would be the world spray
painting titles in Brazil, 2015.
It’s an all-expenses-paid trip. The
titles were in Japan last year, and
Germany this year. If nothing
eventuates this year, Emily has her
sights firmly set on entering again
in 2014.
A self-confessed “bit of a tom-
boy,” Emily has just started her
third year apprenticeship at Mel
Schmidt Panel Works in Benetook
Avenue. It’s a job she loves. She
can’t wait to get to work each day,
and wants to go as far as she can
in the spray painting business.
Emily is Ararat-born, but
came to Mildura with the family
about eight years ago, finishing
her education at Red Cliffs Sec-
ondary School before working
at McDonalds for two years, and
then doing a few months work as
a brickie’s labourer.
But having had an interest
in cars from her early teens, Em-
ily had a fair idea of the job she
wanted as a career path, and
rang around a few places, Mel
Schmidt’s included, to see if there
was any chance of an apprentice-
ship.
She was invited to drop in her
resume, and owners Craig and
Loris Beruldsen, impressed at her
enthusiasm and general attitude,
worked with the Mildura-based
training organisation Ausnac to
give her a start in the spray paint-
ing game.
They had a willing ‘pupil’ in
young Emily. According to Craig
and Loris, she soaked up all the
information, studied, listened
and learned, rarely had to be told
something twice, showed atten-
tion to detail, and had the neces-
sary patience for what can often
be some intricate and involved
paint work.
And it was these attributes
that saw Emily invited to contest
the latest spray painting titles. Em-
ily took all her own gear to Mel-
bourne...more than $2000 worth,
including an air-fed respiratory
face mask and belt, and spray
gun.
Competitors weren’t judged
on their work alone. They had
to display customer relation
skills, occupational health
and safety, dress codes, critical
thinking, good eyesight, atten-
tion to detail, problem-solving
skills, and work under supervi-
sion and training.
Each competitor was handed
a car door, and given eight hours
to bring it back to basics, sanding
and priming, then colour match-
ing two shades, one a ‘Dash’
Green, and the other a gold, both
of which needed advanced colour
matching. The apprentices had
to mark out the letter ‘W’ on the
door, and highlight it.
Craig has seen the finished
product, and was suitably im-
pressed. “They say girls have a bet-
ter eye than blokes when it comes
to colour matching,” he said. “The
judges were just as impressed...
it was near-perfect...the judges
found a one percent difference
between Emily’s work, and that of
the eventual winner. It had to be
measured...you couldn’t spot any
difference with the naked eye.”
Emily was happy to walk away
with a silver medal, and is deter-
mined to go one better next year.
She is the first to admit she has
made spray painting her whole
life. While other teenagers are out
partying, Emily helps look after
two younger brothers, saving her
hard-earned apprenticeship wages
soshecandoupherfirstcar,a
white Lancer coupe (soon to get a
special black spray paint job), and
add to her work equipment.
She gave up basketball and
badminton to concentrate on her
work, but still finds a little time
for off-road motorbike riding, and
cooking.
At Mel Schmidt’s, Emily has
worked on anything and every-
thing in her first two years...bar-
becue trailers, cars, trucks, sheep
yard rails, boats, grape harvesters
-
even a fridge! No matter how
big or small, no matter who the
customer, they all get the ‘Emily
touch,’ and she just can’t wait for
the next challenge.
Spray-painting an
art for a keen teen
mined to go one better next year.
• TERRIFIC TEEN ‘TRADIE’; Emily Stebbing has good reason to
smile...being recently judged the second-best apprentice spray-
painter in the State! That’s Emily in action at the competition,
RIGHT. She has pledged to go one better next year.
He’s led one helluva life. From
the boy next door to national
pop star...called up for National
Service and a tour of Vietnam...
marriage breakdowns...other failed
relationships...Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder...the tragic loss of a son...a
suicide attempt...and that Midday
Show TV clash with Ron Casey. Meet
a loving Dad, grandfather and
gifted entertainer...
Normie is
a survivor
in a tough
industry
By ALAN ERSKINE
ONE night he’s singing at the Darwin RSL,
the next he’s off to Katherine, followed by
a gig at the unique bush pub at Humpty
Doo...then it’s a long drive back to the air-
port for a flight across country and a three-
night stand in Adelaide, then back on a
plane ready to hit the stage at Coolangatta
on the Gold Coast.
But Normie Rowe isn’t complaining...
he’s doing what he does best, criss-crossing
the country, either by car or plane, in full en-
tertainment mode.
He’s been to Mildura before...a long,
long time ago...and was back in town on Fri-
day for a gig at the Mildura Working Man’s
Club, one of just 50 scheduled live perfor-
mances across Aus-
tralia for 2013.
I thought it
would be good to
renew
acquain-
tances...we go back
a long way, to late
1966 if my memory
serves me correctly.
That first meet-
ing was a memo-
rable one. I was a
19-year-old novice
newspaper scribe sent to interview a fellow
19-year-old who had just been crowned the
undisputed Australian king of pop.
We spoke in the garden of the Grand
Hotel. Dozens of young female fans were
screaming their lungs out on the other side
of the bushy hedge that fronted 7th Street.
They were snapping up Normie’s autograph
as fast as he could write them out.
Little did he realise that soon after that
magical tour, Norman John Rowe’s birth
date – February 1, 1947 – would be drawn
from the National Service barrel (one of only
15 numbers in a supplementary ballot), and
after basic training he would be off to Viet-
nam, staring down a different kind of barrel
as a Corporal and Crew Commander of his
own armoured personnel carrier.
• Continued Page 60
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